Once upon a time there lived in a monastery on the edge of a village a monk and a novice. The novice had a penchant for a village girl and believed that she liked him too. Therefore, he went to her house every day for alms.
The girl often prepared pea soup for lunch and willingly treated the novice to it. One day the soup was not ready when the novice arrived, and he had to try soup with undercooked peas. And then the novice thought to himself: “Isn’t this a hint that it’s too early to confess your love?” The next day the soup was tasty and rich, and the novice interpreted it as follows: “Since she feeds me so deliciously, it means she wants me not to leave her.”
On the third day, the pea soup again turned out worse than the day before, and the novice decided: “Today, by serving me such soup, the girl is hinting that I should give up my intention to become a monk, become a layman and kidnap her.”
At night, the novice quietly left the monastery, crept up to the girl’s house, made a hole in the floor and, knocking on the boards, began to call:
- Darling, I’ve come! Get up!
The girl woke up, saw a human head and got scared.
- Thief! Thief! – she screamed at the top of her lungs.
The villagers came running to her call, grabbed the novice and took him to the headman.
An investigation into the case has begun. The headman turned to the novice:
- What kind of fuss are you up to? Why are you bothering the laity?
“She herself asked me to kidnap her,” he objected.
- When did I ask you about this? – the girl was surprised.
- It’s not good to refuse! We agreed on everything with the help of pea soup. First, you treated me to undercooked soup, as if warning me that it was too early to act. The next day you fed me a delicious and rich soup, as if asking me not to leave you. On the third day, you diluted the soup with water, thereby giving a sign that it was time to act. “So I heeded your persuasion,” the novice justified himself.
“This seems to be true,” the headman said importantly. – The novice apparently acted in accordance with his guesses. - And he stopped the matter.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru